Jeremiah 31:27-34 Romans 3:19-28 John 8:31-36 Life is full of surprises. Thirty years ago, the desert was pretty close to the last place I ever expected to live. Twenty-two years ago, I never imagined I would be serving in parish …

Genesis 32:22-31 Psalm 121 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 I was in a conversation last week and the topic shifted to “what was the first concert you ever went to?” I assumed that the question related to popular music – I had …

2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15c Psalm 111 2 Timothy 23:8-15 The events of the past few weeks have taken me back to the early 70’s when the suffix “gate” started to be added to every kind of scandal imaginable. I was …

Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4 Psalm 37:1-9 2 Timothy 1:1-14 I have been a serious Anglophile since holding a season tickets to a small theater’s Shakespeare series when I was in high school. Pretty much anything on television with a British accent …

This week’s lessons: Psalm 113 Amos 6: 1a, 4-7 1 Timothy 2:1-7 Luke 16:1-13 I have been enjoying Ken Burns’ newest docuseries on country music. One of the many wonderful stories was about Charley Pride. Pride was not the first …

Amos 8:4-7 Psalm 113 1 Timothy 2:1-8 Luke 16:1-13 My brother lives in Florida and has exchanged blizzard readiness for hurricane readiness. He lives in the central part of the state so all he has really seen is a lot …

Psalm 51:1-10 Exodus 32:7-14 1 Timothy 1:12-17 Luke 15:1-10 Ben Weaver owned the only department store in Mayberry. He also owned a lot of property. He was probably the wealthiest man in town due in no small measure to his …

Philemon 1:21 Deuteronomy 30:15-20 Psalm 1 Luke 14: 25-33 Last month, there was an observance of a most dubious event: the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first slave ship to the colony of Virginia. To be perfectly accurate, …

Psalm 112 Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16 Luke 14:1, 7-14   Two startling revelations made it into the news this week: Kim Kardashian-West revealed that when she was younger she became addicted to fame and money and Miley Cyrus concluded that after …

Isaiah 58:9b-14 Psalm 103:1-8 Hebrews 12:18-29  Last week I departed from my usual preaching style to clarify some misrepresentations of a resolution from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Churchwide Assembly in Milwaukee August 5-10. The resolution approved by the …

My father was an only child, but his father had four brothers and a sister so there was a crowd at family reunions. The one I remember most took place in the summer of 1964. I remember the date because …

Genesis 15: 1-6 Psalm 33: 12-22 Hebrews 11: 1-3, 8-16 Luke 12: 32-40 43 years ago, one of the first classes I took in seminary was on the varieties of ways houses of faith communicated their message. I chose to …